Lobster, hops and pupsBritish Beer aims to break record for longest lobster roll

06/15/17By Nicole Kenney

Celebrate Father’s Day with lobster, beer sampling and puppies at the LobHopster Fest in Portsmouth, where British Beer Co. is setting out to break the world record for longest lobster roll.

The event is happening from noon to 4 p.m. at Portwalk Place, and the highlight will be the 150-foot-long lobster roll filled with fresh New England lobster.

“We have our artisan bakery, Pain D’Avignon, from the Cape putting together some rolls for us and we’re going to piece them together to make one contiguous 150-foot sub roll,” said Jason Narinian, a director of operations at British Beer Co.

Two hundred pounds of coastal Maine cold water lobster meat will be mixed with mayonnaise, celery, lemon, sea salt, pepper and British Beer Co.’s signature Sympathy for the Devil hot sauce. This feast, despite its mass, will be prepared the morning of the event with a forecasted assembly time of just one hour.

Event-goers can get a piece of the football-field-sized lobster roll for a $10 donation — much more affordable than the whole roll would be, if it were for sale.

“If you get a 6-inch lobster roll, what do you usually pay — 20, 25 bucks? So, if you do 150 feet, that’s 300 lobster rolls, times $20, that’s $6,000,” Narinian said.

“The band will be set up inside; we’ll have all of the windows and doors open, so you should be able to hear it on the street,” Narinian said.

Giveaways from participating breweries and distributors will include T-shirts, hats and brewery trips.

Along with the event, British Beer Co. will be serving a menu of lobster-centered specials all weekend long.

“We’re going to do a lobster feature menu [that will] have lobster mac and cheese, lobster flatbreads, and whatever chef comes up with for a lobster menu. We’ll probably have 10 to 12 lobster dishes as our specials menu for that weekend,” Narinian said.

What else goes with lobster rolls and beer? Puppies, of course. Since proceeds from the LobHopster Fest will benefit the nonprofit organization Hero Pups, there will be about half a dozen puppies visiting the event.

“We’re going to bring some of the younger ones,” Hero Pups founder and president Laura Barker said. “It’s also a really good deal — you get part of a lobster roll, and all the beer and swag and puppy kisses and music for 10 bucks. What better Father’s Day gift can you have?”

Hero Pups aims to place therapy dogs with veterans and first responders.

“We were trying to figure out a way to really support people in the community who are going above and beyond to benefit veterans,” Narinian said. “We wanted to do something with law enforcement or veterans, and Hero Pups does a lot for both, so we thought it was a perfect fit for us and our community outreach,” said Narinian. “We wanted to support people that are supporting the community themselves.”

With the donations, they plan to buy new fencing for their dogs.

“Every cent we raise goes to caring for these dogs,” Barker said. “It’s more expensive to use rescues than it would be to use some breeder dogs, but it’s our philosophy that we can help both ends of the leash this way and save two lives at a time.”